Like this:

I have purchased many a water bottle in my lifetime with the best of intentions. It’s obvious that the waste produced by bottled water you can purchase in the store is overwhelming, and I’ve tried to do my part to cut down on it, but sometimes the water from my tap is not the best tasting.

First, the packaging it comes in is simple and recyclable, so they are minimizing waste already, but the bottle itself is really… cool! Each bottle comes with a cork stopper and a charcoal stick. Rinse the stick to remove loose charcoal dust and pop it in the bottle. To secure it, simply squeeze the bottle and allow the stick to roll so it “wedges” into this little notch in the lower part of the bottle. Fill it with water at night, leave it in the fridge overnight, and in the morning you will have clean, crisp, cold water ready to go! A small metal loop swings over the cork top, so you can grab it and go without worrying about spills.

The charcoal is rechargable as well. About every three months of everyday use, pop it out of the bottle and place it in boiling water for 10 minutes. Allow it to dry, and it’s ready for use again. I have not used it every day, but I have had it long enough to recharge it once. After two recharges, they recommend replacing the charcoal with a new one, but feel free to recycle the old one rather than throwing it out – break it up and sprinkle in houseplants for extra nutrients, or in the cat box to help neutralize odors.

The taste is great, too. I definitely taste the difference from tap water, and consider this… Let’s say you purchase a pack of 24 bottled waters at the store for about $4.00 (I’ve seen them cheaper AND more expensive, but that’s about average). That means each 20 ounce bottle is $.17. That’s not too bad, but you are also left with 24 bottles to recycle as well as the carton and plastic they were wrapped in. An Eau Good water bottle with the first carbon is about $20 and lasts at least 6 months with daily use, which means $.11 a bottle (which is 27 ounces). After that, you will want to purchase a replacement charcoal. Through the Black + Blum website, you can get the replacement charcoal for $13 (product plus shipping) – personally I hope they switch to USPS shipping for the states because they could ship it for less than $3 as opposed to $8 through UPS, which would make the price a LOT more attractive. But even at $13, that means every bottle drops in cost to $.07.

So, not only are you cutting waste, you are saving money! Over a full year, you are cutting your bottled water costs in half. How could you not like it?

Oh, and do you have multiple people in your household? NO PROBLEM. They have different colored tabs so you can assign each member their own color. Drink more than 27 ounces of water in a day? Get more Eau Goods and rotate through them, you are still saving money and cutting down on waste. Really, there is no reason not to own these!